Automatic shoe machine



June 16, 1925.

. E. J. PRINDLE AUTOMATIC SHOE mcnnm inal Filed July 51,1916 3 Sheets-Sheet 1 Jay.

June 16, 1925. 1,542,091

E. J. PRlNDLE AUTOMATIC SHOE MACHINE Original Filed July 351, 1915 3 Sheets-$heet 2 Q, 9, o =1 s 4% G June 16, 1925.

1,542,091 E. J. PRINDLE AUTOMATI C SHOE MACHINE Original Filed July 31, 1916 3 Sheets-Sheet 3 wilizes's' Patented June 16, 1925.

UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

EDWIN J". PRINDLE, OF EAST ORANGE, NEW JERSEY, ASSIGNOR T UNITED SHOE. MACHINERY CORPORATION, OF PATERSON, NEW, JERSEY, A CORPORATION OF NEW anrorrarro srron MACHINE.

Ofigifialapplicaticn filed July 31, 1916, Serial No. 112,291. Divided and this application filed October r 17, 1919. Serial No. 331,298.

To aZZwhom it may concern:

Be it known that I, EDWIN J. PnINDLn,

a citizen of the United States, residing at East Orange, in the county of Essex and State of New Jersey, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Automatic Shoe Machines; and I do hereby declare the following to be a full, clear, and exact description of the invention, such as will enable others skilled in the art to which it appertains to make and use the same.

The invention relates" to machines for operating on shoes and more particularly to machines in which the shoe in automati cally presented to a mechanically actuated tool or operating means, suoh'for instance as a sewing mechanism which operates progressively along a portion of the shoe,

In machines of this character, it is fre quently desirable that the points, at which the tool or some one or more of its instrumentalities engages the work, be equally spaced during the relative travel of the point of operation along the work, and in 25 case the tool is also provided with work engaging feeding devices, it is desirable that their action shall harmonizewith the feeding mechanism which feeds the work past the tool.

The present invention secures these results by the provision of means acting dur ing the operation on the work to synchronize the speed of the tool actuating mechanism with the work feeding mechanism so that the speed of the tool is varied to compensate for any change in the feed of the work due to imperfect or variable action of the feeding mechanism.

The invention is illustrated as embodied in ail automatic shoe machine which is fully shown and described in application No. 112,292, filed July 31, 1916, and as applied to the mechanisms for effecting the automatic sewing of the inseam of a shoe as shown and described in application No. 112,291,,liled July 31, 1916, of whichthe present application is a division.

In; the drawings Figure 1 is a side elevation showing so much of the machine of said application as is necessary to illustrate the present invention; Fig. 2 is a side elevation of the sewing mechanism; Fig. 3 is a detail of the controlling mechanism; and Fig. & is a detail plan view of the base for supporting the sewing mechanism.

in the machine illustrated the shoe is carried on a jack 2 which is rotated and at the same time shifted laterally and longitudinally to cause the edge of the shoe to travel past the point of operation of the tool. The mechanism for thus feeding the jack comprises the continuously rotating friction rolls 4 arranged to embrace the flange of the disc 6carried by a shaft 8 which is connected to transmit the proper rotary and shifting movements of the jacks, as fully explained in said application No. 112,292. The disc 6 is so shaped and the connections through which motion is transmitted to the jack are so proportioned that the travel of the jack past the tool is continuous and approximately uniform.

The operating tools are mounted on a turret 10 which is automatically moved about the point of operation as a center to maintain the tool in proper relation to the shoe, and is indexed to bring the tools successively into position to operate onthe shoes, as fully explained in said application No. 112,292.

One of the operating tools and the one in connection with which the present invention is utilized consists of an inseam sewing ma chine, indicated at 1.2 in Figure 1, and having the construction and mode of operation of the machine of Patent No. 412,704, October 8, 1899. This machine is provided with stitch-forming devices and with the reciprocating feed awl 14 for giving an intermittent or step-by-step feed. In order that the sewing mechanism may have its stepby-step movement with relation to the shoe while the shoe is continuously traveling past the point of operation, the sewing machine is mounted on a base plate 16 which is mounted to swing about a pivot stud 18 on the turret 10. The base plate is yieldingly held in position by springs 20 engaging opposite sides of the plate and adapted to yield to permit movement of the sewing machine in either direction during the action of the intermittent feed of the machine on the continuously moving shoe.

In the construction shown the movementgiven to the pivoted base plate of the sew-- ing machine by the intermittent feed of the machine and the continuous travel of the shoe is also utilized to synchronize the speed of the sewing machine with the mechanism for feeding the shoe supporting jack. For this purpose a rheostat, indicated at 22, is included in the circuit of the sewing machine motor 2st and an arm 26 carried by the base plate 16 is provided with a contact 28 arranged to be moved over the contact plates 3-0 of the rheostat by the movement of the base plate. The arm is secured on. a shaft 32 which is mounted on the base plate and which carries a bevelled gear 3st engaging a bevelled. gear 36 fixed on the pivot stud 18 about which-the base swings. During the sewing the stitch-forming and feed-- ing mechanism of the sewing machine feeds itself along the shoe by a step-by-step motion while the shoe supporting jack is continuously fed by the independently driven mechanism. If the feed of the sewing mechanism is faster than the feed of the jack it will cause the sewing machine to be moved against the stress of one of the springs 20 so that the gear 34: will travel over the fixed gear 36 and will move the con tact EBB-along the rheostat in a direction to slow down the motor which drives the sewing machine and thus bring the feed of the sewing machine into unison with the feed of the jack. If the feed of the sewing mechanism is slower than the feed of the jack it will cause the sewing machine to be shifted in the opposite direction against the stress of the other spring 20 thus causing the con.- tact 28 to move over the rheostat in the opposite direction or in a direction to increase the speed-of the sewing machine motor and bring it into unison with the speed of the jack. The lag or lead of the sewing mechanism with relation to the shoe thuscontrols the speed of its actuating mechanisms and automatically synchronizes the speed of the sewing, mechanism with the jack feeding mechanism. The stitches are thus equally spaced and the intermittently acting feed of the sewing mechanism works in harmony with the mechanism for continuously feeding the shoe although the sewing mechanism and jack feeding mechanism are operated by independently acting actuating mechanisms.

While the invention has been shown and described as applied to. an automatic shoe sewing: machine, it will be understood that it. is not confined in its application to such machine but may be applied with advantage to machines for performing other operations upon shoes or to machines for operating upon other classes of work.

What is claimed is:

1. A shoe machine, having, in combinatlO11,I11GLHS for supporting a shoe, a mechanically actuated tool for operating progressively upon portions of the shoe, mechanism for relatively feeding the shoe to the tool, and means responsive to variations in the relative speeds of the feed and tool for synchronizing the speed of the tool actuating means with the feeding mechanism.

2. A shoe machine, having, in combination, means for supportingashoe,a mechanically actuated tool for operating progressively upon portions of the shoe, mechanism for relatively feeding the shoe to the tool, and means for regulating the speed of the tool actuating means controlled by the lag or lead of the tool relative to the feeding means in operating upon the shoe.

A shoe machine having, in combination, means for supporting a shoe, a tool for operating on the shoe, means for automatically presenting and feeding a shoe to the tool, and means for regulating the speed of the tool according to the speed at which the shoe is fed past it.

4-. A shoe machine, having, in combination, a sewing machine, means for automat ically presenting and feeding a shoe to the sewing machine, and means for regulating the speed of the sewing machine according to the speed with which the shoe is fed past it..

5.- A shoe machine having, in combination, a sewing machine, means for automatically presenting and feeding the shoe to the sewing machine, and means for equalizing the length of the stitches by regulation of the relative speeds of feeding and sewing.

6. AL shoe machine,-having, in combination, a sewing machine, means for automatically presenting and feeding a shoe to the sewing machine, a support for the sewing machine adapted to move in case the feeds of the machine and ofthe shoe are not in unison, and means actuated by the movement of said support for correcting the speedof the sewing machine feed to correspond with that of the shoe.

7. A shoe machine, having, in combination, means for supporting a shoe, a mechanically actuated tool for operating progressively upon the shoe, a power drive there" for, mechanism for relatively feeding, the shoe to the tool, and means for synchronizing' the speed of the power drive with the feeding mechanism.

8'. An automatic machine, having, in combination,.means for operating progressively upon the work, including an intermittent feeding device, mechanism for continuously feeding the work past the operating means, and means for. synchronizing the feeding mechanisms.

9. A shoe machine, having, in combination, a tool for operating progressively upon a shoe, mechanism for actuating the same shoe f'eedigng mechanism, and means for regulating the speed of said actuating mechanism controlled by the lag or lead of the tool relative to the feeding mechanism in operating upon the shoe.

10. A shoe machine having, in combination, a sewing machine, means for automatically presenting and feeding the shoe to the sewing machine, and means responsive to variations in the relative speeds of feeding and sewing for regulating said relative speeds so that the length of the stitches shall be substantially uniform.

11. A shoe machine having, in combination, an actuated tool for operating progressively upon portions of the shoe, mechanism for relatively feeding the shoe to the tool, and means for controllingthe relative speeds of the tool and feeding mechanism by the lag or lead of the tool relative to the feeding mechanism in operating upon the shoe.

12. An automatic machine having, in combination, means for supporting an article having a marginal contour corresponding to a shoe sole,'an actuated tool for operating progressively along such contour, Work feeding mechanism, and means for regulating the relative speeds of the tool and feeding mechanism by the lag or lead of the tool relative to the feeding mechanism in operating upon the Work.

13. An automatic machine having, in combination, a tool for operating progrcssively along a contour of the Work, including devices intermittently engaging the, work along such contour, a power actuated drive therefor, feeding mechanism actuated from a separate power drive, and regulating mechanism for synchronizing the speed of the too] and feeding mechanism.

14. A shoe machine having, in combinat1on, a tool for operatmg progressively along the shoe, a power operated drlve therefor, shoe feeding mechanism actuated combination, means for supporting an article having a marginal contour corresponding to a shoe sole, an actuated tool for operating progressively along such contour, Work feeding mechanism, and means responsive to variations in the relative speeds of the tool and feed for regulating said relative speeds.

16. A shoe machine having, in combination, a tool for operating progressively upon a shoe, a power drive therefor, mechanism for feeding a shoe, an independent power drive therefor, and means for synchronizing the tool and feed.

17. A shoe machine having, in combination, an actuated tool for operating progressively upon the portions of the shoe, a power drive therefor, mechanism for relatively feeding the shoe to the tool, and mechanism for varying the speed of the drive in accordance with the feed.

18. A shoe machine having, in combina- EDWIN J. PRINDLE. 

